What I'm Watching: Mitsuharu Misawa vs Kenta Kobashi

Misawa vs Kobashi: Just as fun as Misawa vs Kawada, but for entirely different reasons. 

Part of the fun of being a wrestling fan, at least for me, is watching EVERYTHING. Some stuff you watch once or twice and then get tired of except for something really transcendent (shoot-style fits this for me, with the transcendency exception being Volk Han.) And then, there is some stuff that you can watch again and again with no hesitancy whatsoever. The 4 Corners of Heaven era of All Japan is one of these eras for me. Kawada, Kobashi, Misawa, Taue. Those 4 names, and the endless iteration of matches they produced, are some of the best and most fun heavyweight matches I have ever seen. 

And quite frankly, while everyone talks about the Misawa-Kawada rivalry and how important it was, there is one I enjoy just as much, because it has a slightly different aesthetic to it. Misawa vs Kawada is largely a battle of two stoics, and while that is fun, it can get tiresome (the exception of course being 6-3-94, which is as perfect a match as anything that has happened anywhere.) Kobashi is a lot of things, but a stoic is not one of them. He bursts free with energy, excitement, and charisma. And with Misawa vs Kobashi, you get someone who seems to have no emotion versus someone who defines all of his successes on it. It's a fascinating counterpoint. What I am watching now is their best match together, a match so good that Jushin "Thunder" Liger and Shinjiro Ohtani patterned their own classic of February 9th, 1997 after it. 

This is one of the matches that young wrestlers should be watching, and studying. Don't just watch the MOVEZ~!, although those are plentiful. Watch how the crowd cares. You can make that work, people in wrestling school. Just try a little harder. 

Why I'm happy for Darren Young

Darren Young: Sexuality be damned, he's an excellent heel.

With Summerslam a few days away, noted bottom-of-the-barrel "journalism" site TMZ decided that they would ambush a pro wrestler to see if they could get them to make some silly statement to run on their equally silly website. Instead, Darren Young did something cool. Darren Young came out of the closet.

Now, to be honest, there have been gay wrestlers before. Kanyon was gay, as was Pat Patterson. (Side Note: If you really want to put the lie to the "gay guys can't be tough" meme, show someone Pat Patterson vs Sgt. Slaughter from MSG. That was a war.) This is the first time we're doing it in a more forgiving climate. I, for one, can't wait to see how the WWE handles this. My hope? Nothing changes. Darren Young is still a jerk and a giant heel you want to see punched in the face all the time. My fear? They turn him into some caricature of the worst homosexual stereotypes just to make their jockish male audience smile and laugh.

My Personal White Whale: Revisiting The Best Way To Build A Light Heavyweight Division In The WWE

When i wrote this blogpost, I left it as it was. Namely, an idea for something cool that I thought you could do in the WWE if given enough time and inclination. But as I think about it more,  I realize that if I want a chance for younger fans to be dazzled by pro wrestling beyond what the 'E gives them I have to really sit down and try to make this work for both promotions. Because, if it's done right, what the WCW cruiserweight division meant to so many, and what Michinoku Pro and Dragon Gate mean to so many now, these two divisions can mean now if they're done right. That last sentence, though, is the important part. Because, for both the large company in Stamford, there are lots of things that need to be explained, and fixed, about the way that the juniors have been viewed during all of the previous times that they have tried this.

Now I know that this is my white whale, and i accept it. I am, if nothing else, a man who loves wrestling big and small, past and present, and I'd like very much to see something I know could work done the right way.